Elementary and middle school teachers at Marathon Area Elementary and Venture School work collaboratively on developing learning targets and setting the expectations of high quality work.   Students track their learning progress in a binder that moves with them in each grade. They engage in self-reflection through student-led conferences as they report on data collected and show examples of his/her work.The student explains why each piece of work was important, how it connected to their learning goals, and how that lead to demonstration of proficiency in the standards.  Read more about these practices in the module. 

 Elementary and middle school teachers at Marathon Area Elementary and Venture School work collaboratively on developing learning targets and setting the expectations of high quality work.   Students track their learning progress in a binder that moves with them in each grade. They engage in self-reflection through student-led conferences as they report on data collected and show examples of his/her work.The student explains why each piece of work was important, how it connected to their learning goals, and how that lead to demonstration of proficiency in the standards. Read more about these practices in the module. 

 The Senior Exit Portfolio Project (SEP) at West Salem High School was created to provide evidence that its graduates were career and college ready. The self-directed, active learning experience spans the entire senior year and includes the selection of an area of interest, a research paper, development of a project, maintenance of a portfolio of work and work artifacts, and a presentation of the research and project to a panel of community members.  Each student is assigned a mentor related to the field of study to help link the research to practical application. The mentor connection and the use of a community panel has encouraged deep community participation and investment in the educational process. The SEP also provides an opportunity for full staff collaboration, promoting vertical integration of learning standards across all grade levels and content areas.  

In this lesson, students are taught to use the Haiku format as a way to solidify the theme of their paper.  First students learn about the traditional Haiku structure, and then use the structure to reflect on the cohesiveness of the main ideas in a paper they have written.

Personalized learning should not be devoid of standards. Standards give learners and educators a framework or matrix against which to evaluate and choose what to learn at what time and in what order. Quality standards can still provide plenty of room for learners and educators to co-design how learning will be approached, what goals will be most appropriate for the learner, what tools will be most useful, which strategies to employ, where and how learning will be accomplished and how best to show that learning has occurred.

A research brief, in which the last section goes into great detail about the value of school and parent/community collaboration is vital for success in a personalized learning environment.

A fifth-grade teacher at Goodrich Elementary School in the Milwaukee Public Schools reflects on his previous dissatisfaction with traditional teaching methods and the effect that personalized learning has had on student performance and behavior. In the video educators and learners describe meeting each learner where they are and using their knowledge as a resources.

This short document provides a new frame to think about some expected shifts in the role of educators as personalized learning is implemented.

Using selected scenes from Shakespeare, students are asked to analyze a major character (protagonist or antagonist) and present a monologue or video recording of their personal interpretation of the character's motivations and life experience.  The lesson will take approximately 4 class periods to complete.

This blog post pushes educators to make connections from personalized learning to cultural responsiveness. The call to action is to enhance the learning experience by incorporating each learner's culture, strengths and history into everyday projects, assignments and demonstrations of proficiency.

This video shows how customized learning paths allow learners and teachers to collaboratively set learning goals and understand their progress towards mastery/goals. 

In this video, a father of a learner describes the positive shift to personalized learning. He specifically speaks about customized learning paths and how they have impacted his child's educational experience.

This post discusses the similarities and the key differences between RtI and personalized learning.

Sam Redding addresses multiple questions about personalized learning in this heavily annotated article -- including, current tensions in education, how personalized learning in concert with technology could potentially relieve some of the aforementioned tensions, how we learn, research supporting personalized learning and action principles for states, districts, schools and classrooms.

This activity helps educators understand the process of conferencing with learners more deeply by role-playing the scenario from the perspective of an educator, learner, and observer.

A Goodrich Elementary School second-grade teacher discusses the challenges of personalizing learning for a large group of students and shares her early success in increasing reading engagement and achievement.

Dr. Jim Rickabaugh elaborates on the importance of competency based learning and where it fits in a personalized learning environment.

This is a corresponding infographic to the blog post "Ready to Set Goals With Your Students? Six Tips to Get Started."

This video shows how learner profiles help students and teachers know what they understand and what to focus on.